Filipino Actress Steals The Show

Official Says Award Was Intended For Another Star

June 27, 1994

MANILA — "I didn't expect this," gushed Ruffa Gutierrez as she was named best actress in the Philippine equivalent of the Oscars. The judges didn't expect it either. They thought they named someone else.

Now the country's movie industry is in an uproar, and the scandal is the talk of the town. Mayor Alfredo Lim is threatening to throw Gutierrez in jail, and city fathers want to deport Viveka Babajee, who represented the Indian Ocean island nation Mauritius in last month's Miss Universe pageant.

It started Wednesday, when the Manila Film Festival honored the best in Philippine cinema at its annual awards ceremony, which was televised.

As the drums rolled, actress Gretchen Barretto shouted "and the best actress for 1994 is...." She paused for Babajee to read the winner.

"Ruffa Gutierrez," Babajee blurted.

Barretto's face froze. Her chin dropped. She glanced toward the judges with a look of shock.

Next came best actor, another shocker: Gaby Concepcion, who co-starred with Gutierrez in a film version of the Lorena Bobbitt spouse-castration case. Gutierrez was one of two presenters of his award.

Something was clearly amiss. Soon a representative of the accounting firm that had counted the votes and certified the winners told Lim the winners should have been actor Edu Manzano and actress Aiko Melendez.

Lim then appeared on stage and announced that a "fraud has been perpetrated." But by then, live TV coverage was over and the apparent winners had disappeared with their trophies. Even the cue card with the winners' names, signed by officials of the accounting firm, has disappeared.

Lim, a former Manila police chief known as the "Dirty Harry of the Philippines," has ordered a criminal fraud investigation and summoned all involved to a hearing in his office Monday.

"Ruffa Gutierrez is neck-deep in trouble," Lim told The Manila Standard. The Manila city council has asked that Babajee be deported.

On Saturday, a local TV station aired a slow motion replay of the ceremony. As the crowd cheered Gutierrez, Babajee could be heard on the microphone urging "take it, take it" to Gutierrez's brother, Rocky, who then appeared to slip the cue card into his pocket. The brother was part of the ceremony.

Barretto told reporters that the apparent hoax was masterminded by Concepcion's agent and by Gutierrez's mother, who is Babajee's agent. Barretto claimed she was promised the best actress award next year if she went along with the scam, but she refused.